Wild Wood Roses with SK

A very large gull wing back chair has been in storage for decades. 

#Painted upholstery# painted fabric

What Are Dreams Made OF

 My owner had no idea what to do with it other than have it re-upholstered. So he just sits. Lonely and scared of ending up back at a discount store.

 Most of the fabric was in relatively good condition. There were several worn spots and the piping was worn and ragged.

The upholstery  route was the easiest, yet she hesitated. It seemed her sad chair was destined for something a bit more.

The owner approached me with the hopes and curiosity of the upholstery perhaps being dyed or painted.

Hmmm....Let's see. Yup, I'm gonna paint this puppy. I had never painted such old and worn fabrics before, so this was going to be a treasure hunt. If I don't mess it up. Her attitude was " If we don't like it, no harm no foul:. We can just have it upholstered in the traditional way."

Alright then. Here I go....Not knowing what I was getting myself into.

Using a beautiful lace I covered and hand sewed the lace to the time-worn roll arms.

I lightly cleaned the fabric. Then very lightly sanded using a 400 grit sandpaper. This helped raise the fibers.

Using my personal custom chalked paints, I began by painting a very light coat on damp fabric.

I painted five coats in the same manner. Always dampening the fabric first.

When all the fabric was cream with no fabric showing, I let her dry.

The cream stripes were painted in a gloss, so to just have a slight presence.

The pictures above were my first attempt. I walked away for some weeks. This chair seemed to growl and mumble, every time I walked into the studio. I would growl back and walk away...

 

The Graphics Fairy is the  best place for graphics I use. They are amazing. I can always be certain Karen will have what I am dreaming of. And I appreciate her efforts to continually update her archives.

 

Thanks Karen and The Graphics Fairy. Again! You are my hero!

The seat was unusable from a hundred years of wear. I recovered it with white canvas and then added a beautiful heavy lace. This was then painted to match the background of the chairs body.

Because the right side of the back sections would be seen on entry, my design needed to reflect this.

My client is such a beautiful classy lady and she has a beautiful home, which I have had joy in completing many years of work in design details.

The lace in the upper right is very heavy and sewn on by hand, then painted.

I added the lace to make sense of the chair seat design.

 I also added a bit of lace on the front left corner for balance.

As I finished this piece, I waxed the surface with a clear paste wax. Then buffed for an old shine. I did this three times. This will help protect the painting and keep it from absorbing stains.

The fabric finish feels like soft leather.

I have created other artworks and custom rugs for this exceptional client. Pictures of those works have long been misplaced. I will have time, I hope in our next snow day, to find all these works.

 Thanks for visiting. SK

SK & Modern Masters Paints

http://www.hometalk.com/sksartell/project
http://www.pinterest.com/sksart
Follow my blog with Bloglovin